Luxembourg economy minister Franz Fayot, pictured, has voiced support for a wealth tax on private estates Matic Zorman/archives

Luxembourg economy minister Franz Fayot, pictured, has voiced support for a wealth tax on private estates Matic Zorman/archives

Fayot said that an intelligently structured wealth tax could be better than introducing an inheritance tax, as recently mooted by opposition party leader Frank Engel (CSV).

In an interview with Reporter, Engel voiced support for reintroducing a wealth tax, creating a financial transaction tax and reforming the inheritance tax system for direct line heirs. He later apologised as the proposals did not form part of the party’s official policies and were his own opinions. Luxembourg previously had a net wealth tax for natural persons that was abolished in 2006. A full list of net wealth exemptions can be found here.

Fayot was quoted by RTL as saying:

"I think we have to make a difference between those who put money aside for themselves or for their children, and those fortunes, where we suddenly enter into slices or orders of magnitude, where it becomes really perverse. I'm the one who, at one point, launched this discussion on the taxation of inheritance, since then I've been wondering, if it's the right tax, if it's not better to think about a tax on wealth, that we structure properly and intelligently, not like the obsolete one we abolished in 2005, but a (tax) that would work really well, where it should act and that would really bring a revenue in the coffers of the state."